


slow motion double vision in rose blush

by Nyxierose



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Ficlet Collection, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:35:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29535540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyxierose/pseuds/Nyxierose
Summary: Assorted prompt fills and shorter ficlets, almost all post-series, generally unconnected and variable ratings.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	1. more than anything

**Author's Note:**

> Exactly what it says on the tin. Generally-unconnected prompt fills, almost all post-series / ignoring extra lore, variable ratings and from prompts on my tumblr @electricbluebutterflies. Compilation title from "Gold Rush" by Taylor Swift.

They both get nightmares still.

Five years since Katara slipped into this bed, three since she officially became Fire Lady. She is twenty-two and has lived so much life already, has earned the quiet she wants, and yet-

It is the middle of the night, and like too many nights before it she wakes up to the sound of her husband’s screaming.

She reaches for him in the darkness, grabs his wrist because that’s closest. On other nights she’s tried to tackle him and use the full weight of her body to comfort, but that’s hit or miss when he’s still not in control of his body – and too many times leaning towards hit. A half-conscious man who’s built like a tree can do a lot of unintentional damage, and this is just one of the less fun things she signed up for in exchange for all of the good ones, and-

“Zuko. Hey. Wake up. I’m here. It’s alright.”

In the darkness, his eyes open and flash golden. The worst is over. Now for the still-awkward parts.

“Go back to sleep, ‘Tara,” he murmurs, turning to look at her. “You don’t need to-“

“You were loud,” she points out. At least when it’s her turn to have nightmares, she usually knows what she’s done while not awake. Zuko does not, instead shocks awake with no idea how much he’s frightened her. There’s an innocence in it, the man she loves disconnected from the moments he worries her, but-

“I’m fine.” He doesn’t sound very convincing.

She reaches out and traces patterns on his face, finds the lines under his eyes that are too defined for how young they are. And to think that this is an improvement. At least there _are_ nights they get through now without either of them waking up in terror. When they were younger, when the physical wounds were still healing, they weren’t so lucky. As they are right now, Katara can shut off her past long enough to rest, but then again she has less baggage in her mind. She, at least, had a quiet and good childhood. Her partner, not so much.

She knows how to love. She is trying to show him the same, even now.

“I love you,” she murmurs, moving her hand to his hair. “All of you. Even the middle-of-the-night frightened panic you.”

“You don’t need to… I’ll be okay, ‘Tara.”

“I know. But right now you aren’t.”

They’re making progress, she thinks. He doesn’t try to pick a fight or even so much as audibly sigh, just entwines his hand with her free one and leans in to kiss her forehead. “I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“Downsides of sharing a bed,” she laughs. It’s alright now. She’s still worried, because she’s always worried, but not as strongly anymore.

“Then why don’t you-“

“Because you’re warm.” To prove her point, she cuddles closer, trying to cover her body in her furnace of a husband. “And I’m not. And I don’t do well alone, you know that.”

They’re both quiet for a few moments, remembering the dark period of their engagement. The forced separation of it, exiling her to the diplomats’ wing on the other side of the palace, lasted less than a month before she started sneaking out. Cut to an averted international incident, and the wedding getting moved forward just in case there were consequences even though they’d barely even kissed, and-

“I know,” he murmurs, gently stroking her back. “I’d always heard waterbenders run warm, but _you…_ ”

“You love me anyways.”

“More than anything.”

It’s still the middle of the night, and she’s still tired, and she closes her eyes with her head nested on his chest and hopes they’ll get through the rest of the night without incident. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. She’ll deal either way.


	2. if she's willing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Playing with their hair while their head’s in your lap

The quiet moments are the best ones.

It’s rare to get that anymore. Just long enough thinking he _wouldn’t_ inherit everything was enough to convince Zuko it’d be fine, but… he’s nineteen and technically running an empire and it’s a lot. Being born for this does not mean he actually knows what he’s doing at all times, and if there is one good thing about being so young it is that no one thinks less of him for how much he lets his advisors do. He’ll learn, in time. He will _have_ time.

Meetings are over for the day, thank goodness, and there’s an hour or so to kill before preparing for some banquet he should know more details of than he offhand does. An hour or so to spend with Katara in the palace gardens, safe place and safe girl. He lives for these moments now, for just _being_ with her. The betrothal has finally been formalized, so there’s not as much they can do anymore, but the gardens in daylight is safe enough for them to at least be left alone.

Most of the time they walk together. Today, they just sit by the pond.

Strange to think he fell in love with her after everything that happened. Stranger still that she let him. Katara is beautiful and passionate and perfect, could do anything but is giving her life to the fate of political wife. They’ll marry two weeks after she turns eighteen, another six months from now, the earliest anyone would let them. Truth be told, Zuko isn’t thrilled that’s a requirement, but if it means he gets to be with her always and if she’s willing…

“You’re lost again,” she murmurs, flicking her wrist and splashing water at his face.

They’re on a bench close enough to the pond that Katara can easily play with the water as she desires. Started out sitting next to each other, but her head ended up in his lap and she’s looking up at him with such warmth, like the way she loves him is far beyond words. He’s reminded of how well everyone took it when he stated his intentions towards her, how many people underestimated her as a strange choice at best. They don’t know her like he does. Yes, she’s tactful enough to live this life ahead without problems, but she has her moments and he-

“You’re distracting,” he counters. And that isn’t enough of a word, really.

She shakes her head, fanning her dark brown hair out over his thighs. It’s easy enough to play with it, easy enough to notice her sweet smile as he runs his fingers through the loose parts. She’s so cute like this – not that she isn’t cute always, but it’s different when she’s not so tense. Even easier to love.

“Bad day?”

“I don’t know how we do this, ‘Tara.”

We. The word hangs too heavy, too much pressure to put upon her. She knows, has known since before any formal questions were asked, that he intends to cling to her once they’re married. She’s better at having power than he is, they both know that, and he doesn’t care how many traditions that breaks. As long as she’s willing…

“We’ll figure it out,” she murmurs, turning her head to kiss his hand. “I don’t worry about that.”

“Really?” he laughs. Katara is a compulsive worrier, and he adores her for it, but for her to give up like that-

“Fine, I worry a little. But not about me and you. We’ll do it together, okay?”

How could he ask for more than that. He wants to kiss her face but that would mean moving her so he settles for bringing her hand to his lips. “You’re too good for me.”

She flicks her free hand and splashes him with water again, playful smile on her lips and sparkle in her water-blue eyes. “You sure about that?”

“Always.”


	3. closest thing to normal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: the way you said “I love you”... as an apology
> 
> Modern AU

So, bad decisions were made. Blame the alcohol, or the lack of sleep, or the fact that their found-family situation has a lot of great ideas and zero impulse control as of the moment Katara walks away. And she did so earlier than usual, and things kinda spiraled from there, and…

The morning after, in the fog of a well-deserved headache, it takes Zuko a little longer than it should to remember the fight.

Well, maybe not “remember”. Because that implies details, and details are not happening right now, but there is at least a very good reason he is sprawled out on a chair that is too small for his limbs and Katara is… not. And it probably involves him saying or doing something regrettable, and it is probably better not to know exactly what that something was if he wants to sleep on a mattress ever again.

Zuko glances around the room at these people he loves. On paper, all of them in a house together sounded like a terrible idea. (And on paper Suki doesn’t officially live here, but that’s a whole other issue.) But here they are, two months into the school year, and the house hasn’t caught fire yet and no furniture is _significantly_ broken and… it’s the closest thing to normal he’s ever gotten to experience. Sokka and Suki must’ve made it upstairs, Aang is on the floor, Toph in her drunk-ish brilliance managed to make a blanket tent on the floor, and-

“You sleep?”

And Katara is right behind him, moving her body so her hair swings just so. She is _unfair_ and too much pretty for this early in the morning.

“I guess? I don’t remember… that. Or anything else I did.”

“And this is why I don’t drink when Toph gets cocktail recipes off tiktok,” Katara mutters.

“I…”

He’s not sure what to say, because he is not sure what needs to be undone. He knows there was some stupid comment that seemed like the right thing to say but apparently wasn’t, and that is not at all a helpful direction, and-

“I don’t need to talk about it.”

That phrase has never been a good sign from anybody, but especially not from one’s girlfriend. Zuko is just lucid enough to realize this. “’Tara, I… can you at least tell me what happened?”

“You decided I was a killjoy because I did _not_ want to make choices that would leave me feeling like roadkill. And you would not shut up about it.”

That is somehow both better and worse than he expected. “You know I… I think you’re amazing, and I love you, and… I was a dick. And you made the better call.”

She leans down and kisses his cheek. “It happens. I’m not that mad at you. More… don’t have the energy to deal with one of your guilt spirals right now.”

“So getting you flowers is a terrible idea?”

“I wouldn’t say no. But you don’t have to, babe. I’ll get over it just fine without.”

Normal, he thinks as he looks up into her perfect water-blue eyes. This is normal. This is okay.

“Next time I’ll…”

“I feel like you have enough consequences going on right now,” Katara shrugs. “You don’t need me adding to them.”

Yep. Everything will be okay.


End file.
